Heart to Heart: Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective Read Online Free Page A

troubled.
"What?"
    I said. "Private joke. Who are you?"
    "This is Jim Sloane."
    "Uh huh."
    “ Oh I...I assumed you
knew. My law firm represents Valentinius de Medici. I have the
papers all ready for you. So could you..?”
    I said, "Give me five minutes," and hung
up.
    But five hours or five days would not have
been sufficient to prepare me for that meeting with Jim
Sloane.
    He's a guy of roughly my own age. Handsome,
well set up, athletic—has a quick smile that starts fading before
it's firmly in place, bright eyes, sharp mind. He started out with
me though in that lawyerly manner—sizing me, psyching me,
categorizing me. Which is okay. Lawyers are always engaged in some
kind of mind game; it's the nature of their business. I was exposed
to some international law studies, courtesy of Uncle Sam, and
learned enough to respect the game if not always the players, and
enough to know when I am being lawyered.
    Sloane had his briefcase open on the library
table. Several documents were spread out before him. We shook
hands and sat down with the table between us.
    "Could I see some identification?" he
requested.
    I said, "Trade you," and slid my wallet
toward him.
    He showed me one of those flash smiles as he
produced a slim wallet and handed it across to me. I glanced at his
driver's license and a state bar ID, then slid it back. He took a
bit longer with mine, jotting some sort of legal record in a small
notebook, taking verbal note of my Naval Reserve status as he
studied the card.
    "Subject to recall to active duty?" he
wondered aloud.
    I shrugged. "Only if the sky is falling, I
hope."
    The lawyer chuckled, returned my wallet and
immediately passed over one of the documents; told me, "This is
your power of attorney. I suggest you keep it in a secure place.
Safe deposit box, preferably. I have a copy, so—"
    I could have checked it
out for myself but I was too busy checking the guy out, besides
which I wanted to keep his thoughts channeled along a specific
path, so I ignored the document and asked him, "What power of
attorney is that?"
    He shot me a surprised look as he replied,
"I assumed you knew about it. He has given you full power of
attorney."
    "Who has?"
    "Valentinius, of course."
    "Why?"
    "Why?" He was getting flustered. "So that
you may act in his place during his absence."
    "Where'd he go?"
    "You are Ashton Ford." It was a question,
expressed as a declaration. His eyes strayed briefly to the
jottings in his legal notebook. I was picking up his mental
wavelength. Confusion was there, also an occasional flare of
impatience and maybe hostility. Even some fear perhaps. "Surely you
know why you are here."
    I smiled, told him, "I know nothing about
why I am here, even less about your client."
    "So why are you here?"
    "I was invited."
    "But you don't know why?"
    "That's right. I don't know why. And I do
not know any Valentinius de Medici."
    Sloane's synapses were flaring like crazy
now. And he was losing the lawyerly demeanor. "Well this is insane,
purely insane. Why would the man empower you to act in his behalf
if...if..."
    I replied, "My thought
exactly. Why doesn't he empower you? How long have you represented
him?"
    He said, "Our firm does have limited powers
of attorney. For many years. But...have you never met Mr. de
Medici?"
    "Not sure," I said. "Have you?"
    "This is purely insane," Sloane
declared.
    "Possibly," I agreed. "How many years?"
    "What?"
    "You said you'd been his attorney for many
years. How many is that?"
    "He's our senior client."
    "Meaning?"
    "It's a family firm. My grandfather
established it. We have always had the Medici account. May have
been our very first client, very possibly our only client in the
beginning."
    "But you've never met the client."
    "That's right," the lawyer replied with
obvious discomfort. "But that's not so unusual. I mean my father
always directly handled the business, and his father before him.
I've only just recently become involved in..."
    I quietly inquired, "Did your